{"id":29485,"date":"2025-11-09T20:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/29485\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T20:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:50:11","slug":"pep-guardiola-in-no-doubt-rodri-will-return-to-his-best-for-man-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/29485\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola in no doubt Rodri will return to his best for Man City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ballon d\u2019Or winner has suffered repeated frustration in his attempts to return to action this season after a serious knee injury wiped out most of his 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Having returned to action after a hamstring injury last weekend, the midfielder missed the midweek Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund following a fresh setback.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.81268348.jpg\" alt=\"Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Rodri stood together before a game\" data-title=\"Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester City \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Molineux Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Bradley Collyer\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Pep Guardiola (left) is confident Rodri will return to his best (Bradley Collyer\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola has now said it is unlikely the 29-year-old will be risked in Sunday\u2019s Premier League encounter with champions Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The City manager is certain, however, Rodri will eventually overcome his problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m 100 per cent convinced he will be back and will play,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cMaybe it will take a little bit time to reach the level that he had \u2013 he has to play games, games, games \u2013 but he\u2019s going to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just we have to be sure the moment is there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only want to have Rodri happy, always, to start to smile, enjoy it again. It has been tough but he\u2019s one of the most competitive football players I have ever met in my career. The push he has made is unbelievable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe toughest period is gone. That\u2019s the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh month of a long, long injury. Now it\u2019s at the end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has to try to say, \u2018OK I\u2019ll be back around the corner, and I will come back and enjoy it with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2.79047433.jpg\" alt=\"Manchester City midfielder Nico Gonzalez during a game\" data-title=\"Manchester City v Newcastle United \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Etihad Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Nico Gonzalez has been deputising for Rodri (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, with Croatia international Mateo Kovacic another injury victim, Nico Gonzalez is set to continue to deputise.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola has been pleased with the 23-year-old\u2019s improvement this season.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cWe have continuity. Don\u2019t misunderstand me, we want Rodri back as quick as possible but I don\u2019t want him back if, after a while, he has to make a little bit step back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that process we have good cover. That\u2019s massively important and without Nico it would be more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ballon d\u2019Or winner has suffered repeated frustration in his attempts to return to action this season after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-29485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}